Astral Foods Executive Management

Chris Schutte (56)Chief Executive Officer

Appointed as director
of Astral Operations Limited
in November 2006Started career as Assistant Farm Manager in 1984 at Golden Lay Farms, a division of Tiger Brands. After 18 years with this group, joined Astral Foods Limited in 2002 as Manager of retail sales for Meadow Feeds.

Appointed as Managing Director for the Animal Feeds division in July 2004 before being appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Astral Foods Limited in 2009.

Daan Ferreira (60)Chief Financial Officer

Appointed as a director
of Astral Operations Limited
in May 2009Held various positions in operational financial management, tax management, project management before joining Astral Foods as Group Financial Manager in 2001

Andy Crocker (46)Managing Director: Commercial Division

Appointed as director
of Astral Operations Limited
in March 2012Having previously farmed in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, he joined Meadow Feeds as a Technical Advisor in 1998 as part of the team that established the Eastern Cape operations. He holds a BSc Agriculture degree from the University of Natal and a Master’s degree in Business Management from Henley Management College, UK, and is a Registered Professional Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions. In 2000 he became the Technical Support Manager for the Eastern Cape before moving to Meadow Paarl as Sales Manager in 2002. Originally appointed as General Manager of the Port Elizabeth mill in March 2005 he became Chief Operating Officer of the Eastern Cape region in July 2006 before heading the formation of the Cape Region in November 2010 as Chief Operating Officer responsible for the Paarl, Ladismith and Port Elizabeth operations. He was appointed as Managing Director of Meadow Feeds in February 2012.

Gary Arnold (44)
Managing Director: Agriculture

Appointed as director of Astral Operations Limited in November 2010Holds a Master’s degree in Animal Science from the University of Natal. He also holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of the Witwatersrand which he completed in 2005. Gary is a registered Professional Animal Scientist. Appointed as Managing Director of Nutec on 1 August 2004, and later as Chief Operating Officer for the Meadow division’s Western Cape operations on 1 January 2006. On 1 March 2012 appointed as the Business Development Director for Astral Foods.

Evert Potgieter (46)
Director: Risk Management

Appointed as a director of Astral Operations Limited in December 2015After the completion of his B.Compt. degree and articles and a two-year period as an audit manager at an auditing firm, joined the Altron Group in 1997 in the internal audit department. During his time at Altron obtained his Certified Internal Audit certification and was promoted to deputy internal audit manager, a position he held for five years before joining the Astral group in 2006 as internal audit manager. Current responsibilities include internal audit, risk, insurance and information technology for the Astral group.